The second collaboration between novelist Alex Garland and director Danny Boyle proved far more successful than their first, perhaps due to the fact that Garland wasn't reduced to a passive role (John Hodge penned the script for the film version of The Beach). Garland's script for 28 Days Later envisions London as it succumbs to a terrifying plague, in which the majority of the population have been infected with a virus known as "Rage." Often mistakenly billed as a zombie flick, 28 Days Later is a brutal, sobering experience; a horror movie that drains you whole. Cillian Murphy stars as Jim, a bike messenger who wakes up in a hospital room after a car accident leaves him in a coma, to find that London has gone to hell. Boyle shoots the city - which was meticulously emptied, shot by shot, to achieve the desolate atmosphere - with digital cameras, imbuing the film with a strange, dream-like quality. This low budget flick is genuinely nail-biting stuff; the infected - eyes red, relentless - will give you nightmares for weeks. It's a horror film so packed with scares that it should come with a obligatory cushion to hide behind.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
